NEW DELHI: Mozambique will produce Indian varieties of pulses, mainly arhar and urad, to meet India's growing demand for dals. The Cabinet on Tuesday approved signing a long-term MoU with the African nation to double import of pluses from the present one lakh tonnes to two lakh tonnes by 2020-21.

Announcing the decision, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the crop to be grown in Mozambique would taste like that of pulses raised in India. He said the pulses grown here taste different from the ones produced in other countries. Officials also said the look and taste of imported pulses did not find many takers in India.

Sources said the government will assist Mozambique by providing high quality seeds and technical assistance. TOI has learnt that New Delhi may even provide financial help and will also assure to buy all pulses grown there

According to a government release, pulses from Mozambique will be imported through private channels or government-to-government (G2G) sales through state agencies nominated by the two countries. "The MoU will augment domestic availability of pulses in India and thereby stabilise its prices," the release added.

Under pressure to check spiralling prices of pulses, the government had sent two teams to Myanmar and Mozambique to explore options for getting the key kitchen item. While Myanmar had flatly told the delegation that they had no mechanism for G2G trade and they preferred the private route, Mozambique said it was ready to meet India's requirement provided New Delhi assured buying the entire quantity of pulses grown there.

TOI on June 27 had first reportedthis proposal from the African country.

Total pulses production in India during 2015-16 was 17 million tonnes while 5.79 million tonnes of pulses were imported to meet the domestic requirement. However, the availability of pulses including domestic production and imports was less than domestic requirement, putting pressure on prices during 2015-16 and the current fiscal.

WASHINGTON: India has jumped 19 places in the latest World Bank ranking in the globallogistics performance, reflecting the improvement in movement of goods inside the country thus facilitating better trade.

The World Bank in its latest once-in-two-yearLogistics Performance Index (LPI) said India is now ranked 35th as against the 54th spot it occupied in the previous 2014 report.

Logistics organises the movement of goods through a network of activities and services operating at global, regional, and local scale.

In the 2014 report, India had a LPI score of 3.08, which increased to 3.42 in 2016. For the third time, Germany with 4.23 points tops the ranking, followed by Luxembourg (4.22), Sweden (4.20), Netherlands (4.19) and Singapore (4.14).

Other countries in top 10 are Belgium, Austria, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the United States. Japan is ranked 11.

China has jumped one spot to be ranked 27th while Pakistan is at 68th. Syria ranked lowest.

"Logistics performance both in international trade and domestically is central to countries' economic growth and competitiveness," said Anabel Gonzalez, Senior Director for the World Bank Group's Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice.

"Efficient logistics connects people and firms to markets and opportunities, and helps achieve higher levels of productivity and welfare. Unfortunately, the logistics performance gap between rich and poor countries continues and the convergence trend experienced between 2007 and 2014 has reversed for the least performing countries," Gonzalez said.

The bi-annual report, 'Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy', which ranks 160 countries on their trade logistics performance, is based on survey data from more than 1,200 logistics professionals.

The report ranks countries on a number of dimensions of supply chain performance, including infrastructure, quality of service, shipment reliability, and border clearance efficiency.

According to the report, over the past six years, the world's top-10 performers have remained consistent and include dominant players in the supply chain industry.

Low-income economies with the worst performance are often landlocked, small islands, or post-conflict states.

However, for the first time in the history of the Connecting to Compete reports, landlocked countries are no longer automatically disadvantaged, as shown by the performances of both Rwanda and Uganda, which benefit from regionally coordinated efforts to improve trade corridors.

Gonzalez said building on a rich set of information, the report shows that improving logistics performance is a complex, unfinished, cross-cutting, and evolving agenda.